Reply #130: Closing on a more positive note, just for the hell of it

[Tom Rinaldo]

While I probably would still disagree with you, I would not have reacted as strongly if you had spoken in less all or nothing black and white terms. That's what this little flare up sub thread was about. A hint for the future, for what it's worth, saying something like "In my opinion, based on what I've seen, I would be very careful before trusting someone who served as a General Officer in the military", that wouldn't set me off the same way. See, that would establish that there is something specific that worries you, that gives you reason to be very guarded, that you think others should seriously consider before backing someone who meets the general criteria that is cause for alarm for you. From there anyone who wanted to could discuss whether or not they shared your observations and/or concerns, and how they saw Wes Clark as an individual either fitting or not fitting the picture you drew.

Leaving the abstract and moving to the specific, I see Wes Clark as an exception to the current state that you describe of the revolving door between the Pentagon and the weapons industry. So did Col Hackworth by the way, which is what his comment about why didn't you trade in your bloody uniform for an Armani suit was all about, why didn't Clark take the cushy civvy dough (which he didn't) that was his for the asking? The unspoken but obvious reference was to the Military Industrial Complex, those are the guys who kept trying to recruit Clark out of the military, who he kept saying no to.

Here is something Wes Clark said during a live interview on New Hampshire Public Radio back in 2004. You can still listen to the entire interview, the station still has it available and I will leave the link. These comments came at about 35:30 in the audio replay:

"I think General Eisenhower was exactly right. I think we should be concerned about the military industrial complex. I think if you look at where the country is today, you've consolidated all these defense firms into a few large firms, like Halliburton, with contacts and contracts at the highest level of government. You've got most of the retired Generals, are one way or another, associated with the defense firms. That's the reason that you'll find very few of them speaking out in any public way. I'm not. When I got out I determined I wasn't going to sell arms, I was going to do as little as possible with the Defense Department, because I just figured it was time to make a new start.

But I think that the military industrial complex does wield a lot of influence. I'd like to see us create a different complex, and I'm going to be talking about foreign policy in a major speech tomorrow, but we need to create an agency that is not about waging war, but about creating the conditions for Peace around the world. We need some people who will be advocates for Peace, advocates for economic development not just advocates for better weapons systems. So we need to create countervailing power to the military industrial complex."
http://www.nhpr.org/node/5339